Foodpanda Plans to Acquire Stake in its Competitor Startup TinyOwl

Bengaluru: In a surprising turn of events, Foodpanda – a mobile-based food delivery startup – is planning to invest Rs.250 crore in Series C funding round in its immediate competitor in the food delivery space, TinyOwl. This round will also see the participation of TinyOwl’s existing investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Nexus Venture Partners. Previously, TinyOwl had raised $15.6 million in Series B funding from Matrix Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital and $3 million in Series A funding from the same investors.

TinyOwl, one of India’s fastest growing food delivery apps, was founded in 2014 by five IIT-Bombay students – Harshvardhan Mandad, Shikhar Paliwal, Gaurav Choudhary, Saurabh Goyal and Tanuj Khandelwal. The Android application enables the users to order food of their choice through their mobile phones. The app automatically detects the user’s location and provides a list of restaurants that are in the user’s vicinity. It also provides the users with the list of dishes available at the respective restaurants.

As of now, TinyOwl offers its services in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Gurgaon, and is planning to extend its operations to 50 new cities by the end of this year. The one year old startup also claims to fulfill 3000-5000 orders every day, delivering from about 4500 restaurants.